In a Wednesday interview with Fox Sports 1, LeBron James offered his opinion on who were the three greatest NBA players of all time. After a quick pause, James stated that his top three were Larry Bird, Julius Irving, and Michael Jordan.

James did ask for a fourth choice (in which he selected Magic Johnson), but with the comments not even a day old, the Lakers great took to twitter to defend his place in NBA history.

After showering the King with praise, the current ESPN and ABC analyst esentially pointed to the scorebord by claiming that the most difinitive benchmark for NBA greats is one's number of championship rings.

Johnson then presumably ranked his all time list by putting Jordan first with six titles, himself second with five, and finally slotting Bird third with his three. Of course if you were using Johnson's ranking criteria then Magic's own teammate and the NBA's all-time leading scorer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would actually be in the number two spot.

Lebron is entitled to his opinion, but I still think that he and I have a similar game and that’s why I LOVE to watch him play!

Back to LeBron. Maybe it isn't surprising that a dominant 6-9, 260 pound point-forward such as James used this opportunity to separate himself from the player that he has been most favorably compared to throughout his career. If not, his belief could stem from the fact that he has always placed value on a players ability to entertain, thus explaining the selection of Dr. J.

Yet, just as Johnson's own hypocritical argument falls apart, so too does LeBron's confusing logic. Magic's size and skill made him arguably the league's most entertaining player ever, so for Lebron to travel down that road doesn't make much sense either.

It's a great debate to be sure, but the real answer is that there is no one definitive way to determine who the three greatest players are. The funny thing about back and forth between LeBron and Johnson, is that neither understand the fallacies of their own arguments. Both men are all-time great's of the NBA and have earned their right to judge their peers place in history. That is all well and good, but maybe it isn't such a good idea to let their understandably biased opinions be the jury too.